Qamar- 4
It is within the wisdom of the Creator, that if we do something right, we feel the reward for it and if we do something wrong, we see discouragement. That is the Mercy from the Creator. Otherwise, we would not know what is right and wrong. If we accept that we are being educated here to receive the manifestations of the Creator’s qualities which are endless, then we are gradually introduced to the infinite/eternal manifestations of the Creator.
Human feelings have the desire to experience more, that is how the Creator is teaching us by taking on an existential journey to get to know our roots and source of Origin. What we experience is nothing more than the instruction of the education system i.e., if you do not follow your human nature, then you will get punished, and you suffer from the lack of expectations.
Apart from the Creator and the human feelings as signs pointing to the Source of Existence of you and I, we are also sent His message through the messengers. God brings verbal news and in spoken form explains the meaning of this universe, so that we are not left alone without interacting with our Creator. The universe and my human feelings are not enough, and I need spoken words from my Source of Existence, otherwise I cannot make sense that there is something beyond the capacity of the universe. This One who has created the universe must have infinite qualities. The mind is ready to accept the human reality as soon as the message comes from the Creator. As a result, I can easily confirm the truthfulness of what I experience within me with the message. There is a sufficient warning in the teachings brought to us through the Prophets about not being truthful to ourselves. If you accept and submit yourself to your reality, and if you are not obstinate then you can confirm the content of the message. You have the option to reject or work so to confirm, the latter has its reward of joy. The message verbally explains it, you will feel it and we are experiencing it.
54:5″This Quran is profound in wisdom, but warnings are of no benefit (to the one who decides not to believe them)”
I will do whatever I want, and I have decided not to accept authority over me. If someone has already decided this, then whatever evidence s/he brings, he will not accept it. We should be open minded and not condition ourselves. The reality is out there.
54:6 “So, turn away from them. The Day the Caller calls to something that the mind cannot conceive.”
In this world we cannot conceive what and how the next creation will be. That does not make us not believe in it. The fundamental element of this universe is nothing but matter. How is the matter perfectly arranged within an “order”? There is a conscious order coming in the universe, arranged by a conscious being.
In the construction of this universe there is no matter and an order as two separate phenomena. The way things are coming into existence is what we observe and name it as the “order”. The next creation must be a creation different from this creation. The nature of this creation necessitates that there must be another creation where human expectations must be fully satisfied. If a person follows this way, then you can understand that there will be another creation that you cannot conceive of. Can we imagine infinite? No.
- Be careful of the consequences of your choices, in the reward and punishment sense. When you deny the Creator and do not submit yourself to it then you are confiding your life between birth and death. Your burning desire will be temporary and nothing more.
Judaism is a “Children of Israel” or chosen people-oriented religion, while Christianity is Jesus-oriented religion. Buddhism solves all its problems through harmony in the universe, but in the end I die. How do I solve the problem of death? I can solve all my problems if I put the Absolute Creator in my reasoning. In Islam, the model of thinking is based on believe in Absolute Creator, while the other solution of human expectations is not God centered. Islam is God oriented religion.
Why is a God oriented solution for human problems so important?
If we leave the belief in an Absolute Being aloof, then we will just cheat ourselves here with temporary satisfaction and no hope for the future of our existence and human expectations.
- When I base my argument on the Absoluteness and Uniqueness of God, only then can I reach a satisfied conclusion?
Comment: What is the difference between Absolute and Unique?
Absolute means unique and uncountable. Uncountable means that you cannot count it. Absolute covers all of them.
- If someone decides that I am not going to believe, then all the verbal explanations of the Prophet are blocked for them.
54:7 “with their eyes humbled, they will emerge from the graves as it they were swarming locusts,”
54:8 “rushing towards the caller. The disbeliever will cry, this is a difficult day.”
I see the world within my own lens. In the eye of the believer, everything is entertaining the manifestation of the qualities of the Creator. For the unbeliever, every being is suffering from falling into non-existence every moment. The Quran gives the picture of the hereafter as a “gathering”, a huge number of people gathered, which means whatever I decide for myself, I think that everything in the universe is in the same situation. Again, I see the world within my own mirror. The Quran makes everything simple, in a way every human being can imagine and understand what it refers to.
- The way I see the world, accordingly, I reap its consequences.
- Inanimate beings also declare the qualities of their Creator.
54:9 “Before them the people of Noah rejected the truth, they rejected Our servant saying, “A madman”, and Noah was rebuked.”
Noah as a Prophet existed in earlier times, does not matter how many years ago. We need to look at the message, what is taught to me through the example of Noah. He called people to submit to the message of God, and people called him a mad man. This is similar to how believers are accused of today, such that science talks about facts and religion talks about imaginary things. Rather, religion talks about the meaning of what is happening here. Science talks about things as happening by themselves. What is the meaning? Meaning is not matter itself; they cannot put it in the lab. Meaning is not matter, it is what we observe, understand, and perceive. Example: if you speak to someone, and they frown at you and spit at you then turn their back and go. How did you get the meaning that the person dislikes you? Their physical expressions were manifested physically through the act of spitting and through facial expression. We can try to explain it because of brain systems and commands signaling us to react. However, there is still meaning communicated to me about disliking such an act, how do I explain meaning in material terms?
When a believer says that this universe is glorifying its Creator, how is that interpreted? What all the disciplines of science say that matter receives such meanings as pointing to their necessarily existent absolute being?! Some materialist scientists reduce intellectual consistency to what they physically experience. A scholar makes this point clear as follows: If a person takes a book and tries to understand the nature of this book by studying how the physical relationship between the lines of the letters are occurring, and how heavy the book is, then what a ridiculous way of reducing the existence of the book/universe to?! Science says that I am talking about physical facts. Yes, paper and book are a physical thing, but there is some meaning in it. Similarly, the universe is full of disclosing meaning about its Creator. However, some scientists still mock religious dissemination of the meaning of one’s existence.
Nowadays, this type of mockery is done in a smooth way. People go to religious places, give out charity, and are involved in humanitarian work, and so the attitude is that if the believers are not harmful to the society, then all they do is release the tension between rich and poor. They tolerate religious institutions for their positive functioning in the society. In other words, ideology wise, they are still calling each other mad.
54:10 “and so he called upon his lord, I am defeated, help me”
Please God help me and give me the possibility to approach these people. They are suffering from meaninglessness, fear of falling into non-existence because the transient nature of creation seems to be the end of life.
54: 11 “So we opened the gates of the sky with pouring water.”
54”12 “We caused the earth to gush forth with springs so that the waters met for a decreed measure.”
We can create things that you cannot protect yourself from. This means that God will demonstrate something to the rejectors to make them humble and realize that they cannot really protect themselves.
54:13 “We carried him along on a vessel of plank and nails.”
It means that We saved the believers, i.e., all the Prophetic messages which is the Ark of Noah, where God told Noah how to make an Ark/ship within the order of the universe because human abilities are given the potentialities to make something out of the materials by obeying the order of the universe. That is, creating other tools to benefit from them. In other words, experience God’s wisdom and save themselves. Example: nowadays, we have the opportunity to appreciate much more than previous generations how the order of the universe includes in its various kinds of benefits such as wireless communication, various means of transportations… The more we discover valuable creation, the more we understand how Compassionate the Creator is. The One who creates this order of the universe, which we can communicate with each other wirelessly, and so the Creator of this order must be able to communicate beyond our imagination for every decade, we find another secret of the order of the universe which is another manifestation of the wisdom of the Creator.
Noah made the ship by obeying the order of the universe. Example: Solomon flew in this air, not out of nothing. Even miracles are created within the secrets of the order of the universe in order to let the people understand that this order is arranged by a One who is absolutely powerful and anything that the human beings cannot imagine.
54:14 “sailing before our watchful eyes, a reward for him who had been rejected.”
Now there are submarines and more sophisticated machines being made following the order of the universe. Scientists are studying the order of the universe and finding out the secrets within the order of the universe. When we do something, it is just meant to be by His wisdom in His creation. He knows what He has created and when we discover it, He is aware of it. The denier says that the creation of something is an accident, while the believer says that this is a grace from my Creator.
Comment: It seems that the vessel represents “belief”.
It means to understand that everything is under the observance of God. This understanding secures the life of the believer. We need to study this in more detail next time…